donderdag 15 januari 2015

According to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), since last summer, Hamas has been encouraging would-be attackers to disguise themselves as religious Jews when leaving on a terror mission. Hamas repeatedly broadcasts a video encouraging such attacks, including tutorials on how to dress.

This is not a new phenomenon, however, as suicide bombers and kidnappers have long been instructed to dress as Jews in order to blend in with the crowd before committing an attack.

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Arabs plan wedding massacre dressed as religious Jews

Terrorists planned on dressing up as religious Jews before entering a wedding hall and shooting as many guests as possible. They were caught, but that ploy has worked before.

On Tuesday, the Jerusalem District court convicted three Arab residents of Jerusalem for conspiring to carry out a terror attack on a wedding hall in the Bayit Vegan neighborhood of Jerusalem last month.

Anas Awisat, Basel Abidat and Ahmed Sorour, had planned on dressing up as ultra-orthodox Jews before entering the wedding hall, posing as guests, in order to shoot everyone there.

According to Channel 10, the terrorists selected that particular venue because Awisat had been employed at the hall and was familiar with the premises. He knew that events there usually had an attendance upwards of 1,000 people, facilitating the murder of a large number of Jews at once.

A joint operation by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the Israel Police revealed that the three had made contact with a Palestinian-Arab arms dealer, who sold them two small machine guns and an Uzi for $50,000.

During the month of December, the terrorists visited the building to survey its layout, determining where entrances and exits were located. However, they were caught before they could carry out their plans.

According toPalestinian Media Watch (PMW), since last summer, Hamas has been encouraging would-be attackers to disguise themselves as religious Jews when leaving on a terror mission. Hamas repeatedly broadcasts a video encouraging such attacks, including tutorials on how to dress.

This is not a new phenomenon, however, as suicide bombers and kidnappers have long been instructed to dress as Jews in order to blend in with the crowd before committing an attack.

In the 2001 Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing in downtown Jerusalem, terrorist Ahlam Tamimi dressed as an Israeli university student before entering the permises. He killed 15 people and wounded more than 130.

This past summer, the two terrorists who kidnapped andmurdered three teenagers– Naftali Frankel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrah – disguised themselves as religious Jews and specifically acquired a vehicle with Israeli license plates in order to trick the boys into thinking it was safe to enter the car.

The recent massacre at a Jerusalem synagoguein the Har Nof neighborhood was carried out by terrorists who worked at a neighborhood grocery store. The terrorist who shot Rabbi Yehuda Glick, a Temple Mount equal-rights activist, outside of the Menachem Begin Heritage Centerwas employedby the Terasa restaurant located inside the building.

Last week, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed a treaty to make Palestine the newest member state of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The move was greeted with jubilation in Ramallah, where there were reportedly fireworks to mark the occasion, and by outrage in the Israeli government.

But the practical consequences of Palestine's move to join the court are much less clear. Here's what you need to know about whatPalestine joining the court really means, why Israel and the US oppose the move, and what this means for the Israel-Palestine conflict.

1) So is Palestine a member of the ICC now?

Probably, but it's not 100 percent for sure. If news reports are correct, Palestine hasacceded to the ICC treaty, and thus completed the main legal process for joining the court. But there are still some significant legal questions to be worked out.

The most important question is whether the court considers Palestine a state. Only states can join the ICC, so if Palestine isn't a state, then the membership question will be moot. In the past, the ICC prosecutor has said that Palestine couldn't join the court until it was recognized by the UN General Assembly. But in 2012, the General Assembly voted to recognize Palestine as a state. So,as far as theOffice of the Prosecutoris concerned, Palestine has been eligible for membership since then.

However, if challenged, the prosecutor's decision on statehoodcould be overruled by the court itself, which could apply a differentlegal standardthat would be at least somewhat more difficult for Palestine to meet.

The second issue is the definition of Palestinian territory. By becoming a member state, Palestine will give the court jurisdiction over crimes occurring within its territory. But the very nature of the Israel-Palestine conflict means the boundaries of Palestinian territory would almost certainly be a matter of dispute. That issue would also probably have to be litigated before any prosecution could proceed.

2) Does this mean that Palestine can sue Israel, or have Netanyahu dragged off to the Hague for prosecution?

No.

First of all, the ICC is a criminal court, not a civil one. That means that, despite headlines you may have read about Palestine suing Israel at the ICC, the ICC does not actually hear lawsuits. And the decision about when to bring a criminal case against any individual lies with the Office of the Prosecutor, not with any particular state party. Abbas doesn't get to force the ICC to take up his case.

What Palestine will be able to do, assuming it clears the legal hurdles described above, is refer particular "situations" to the ICC prosecutor, and request that they be investigated. Palestine has submitted a declaration granting the court retroactive jurisdictionto June 13, 2014, which includes the Gaza invasion that summer. So any crimes that took place within that period, including those in the Gaza war, could potentially be referred to the court as part of a situation for investigation.

But it's important to understand that if Palestine makes that kind of referral, it wouldn't be taken as an invitation to just investigate possible Israeli crimes: any investigation would certainly look at possible Palestinian crimes as well. The Office of the Prosecutor could investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed by Hamas or other Palestinian groups, as well as those allegedly committed by Israel.

In any case, it's actually very likely that the Court wouldn't have jurisdiction over a number of alleged Israeli crimes. That's because of a rule called "complementarity," which strips the court of jurisdiction over crimes that have already been investigated and prosecuted in good faith by a national court.

Israel has a strong judiciary that actively prosecutes war-crimes cases involving its soldiers (even if the courts' decisions are often criticized as too lenient). So to exercise jurisdiction over those offenses, the ICC would have to demonstrate that the Israeli courts had acted in bad faith, which is a high hurdle to clear — it requires more than just an acquittal.

However, the issue of building settlements in the occupied territories has not been taken up by Israeli courts, so that could be a more likely target for an ICC prosecution, as discussed further below.

3) What are the chances the ICC will prosecute Israeli leaders?

The chances of them doing this any time soon are vanishingly small.

First of all, there are a bunch of things that would have to happen before that, and they will take a long time. The ICC will have to make a final determination on the question of Palestinian statehood, as well as the territorial limits on the court's jurisdiction. Then the Office of the Prosecutor will have to conduct a preliminary investigation to determine if there are serious enough crimes to warrant the court's attention, and whether national authorities are already handling them.

IT IS LIKELY THAT PALESTINIANS, NOT ISRAELIS, WOULD BE THE FIRST TO FACE TRIAL

If the Office of the Prosecutor determines both that the crimes are sufficiently grave and that they are not being handled by national authorities, then the next phase is further investigation into specific crimes and individual perpetrators. All of that will take years.

But even if the court does decide to prosecute senior Israeli officials, there is no guarantee that they will actually be arrested, much less tried. The ICC has no police to execute its arrest warrants, which in practice means they often go unenforced.For example, the court issued a warrant for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 2009 (and then again, for good measure, in 2010), and he remains in office to this day, resolutely and thoroughly un-arrested.

More broadly, the court has shown reluctanceto get involved in the Israel-Palestine conflict in the past, and there is no reason to believe that attitude has changed. In the event that the court does decide to bring prosecutions, law professor Kevin Jon Heller has pointed outthat it would be far simpler to prosecute Hamas's leaders than Israel's, so it is quite likely that Palestinians and not Israelis would be the first ones to face trial.

The discussion around the ICC has focused on the Gaza conflict, but a number of commentatorshave writtenthat Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank could more likely lead to prosecution of Israeli leaders, both because the settlement policy's architects are at the highest level of government, and because Israeli courts have not prosecuted the matter themselves. That probably is the most significant risk for Israeli officials — but it doesn't mean that the risk is large, or immediate.

4) Why is the US so opposed to Palestine joining the ICC?

Because it's an act of non-cooperation with the peace process, which the US believes must be negotiated directly between Israelis and Palestinians to ever achieve peace.

The US (and Israeli) position is that joining the ICC is an act of escalation by Palestinian leaders, and one that indicates a lack good-faith involvement in the peace process and that makes the peace process harder.

On December 31st, the State Department issued a statementcondemning Palestinians' decision to join the court, calling it an "escalatory" step that "badly damages the atmosphere with the very people with whom they ultimately need to make peace."

5) Why did Palestine want to join the ICC?

There are two theories on this. The first is that this is simply a further step in Palestine's years-long strategy to gain recognition as a state, one UN agency and country at a time. Previous steps have included joining UNESCO, the 2012 UN General Assembly vote mentioned above, and an ill-fated attempt to get the Security Council to vote on Palestinian statehood just last week. The theory behind that strategy is to raise the cost of Israeli occupation by increasing pressure from the international community, and to assert the idea of Palestinian nationhood against a conflict that many Palestinians believe is aimed at robbing them of a state.

The second theoryis that the Palestinians actually hope the court will bring charges against Israeli officials, and that exposing them to investigation and prosecution will increase Palestinian leverage in the peace negotiations. However, as explained above, that's a risky strategy, especially as it places Hamas officials at risk.

6) Will this matter for the Israel-Palestine conflict?

Yes, it will probably matter at least somewhat, for three reasons.

First, as noted above, this is an act of non-cooperation with the peace process by the Palestinians. That happens in all peace processes, and this one in particular has suffered an awful lot of setbacks before. But when one side undercuts the peace process, that makes it harder for the other side to make difficult concessions. In this case, it may make it more difficult for Israel's leaders to convince Israeli hardliners to agree to concessions, because they'll be able to argue that Palestine can't be trusted to engage in good faith. That limits the scope of negotiations, and makes peace more difficult.

At the same time, another view — the one shared by supporters of this move — is that Israel has been so stubbornly resistant to reaching a peace deal that it is necessary for Palestinians to bring greater international pressure to force Israeli leaders to make necessary concessions.

Second, ICC membership limits the opportunity to offer amnesty for leaders on both sides as part of an eventual peace deal, because the ICC wouldn't be bound by any bilateral amnesty agreement between Israel and Palestine. In other words, Israeli and Palestinian leaders can't sign a peace deal in which they promise to grant one another's leaders amnesty, because that amnesty won't extend to the ICC. From the perspective of international justice that could, of course, be a good thing. And it's not clear that amnesty would ever have been a part of a peace deal anyway. But it's still a potentially important negotiating chip that has been taken off the table.

Finally, the ICC could impact Palestinian politics if its initial investigation or prosecution focuses on Hamas, which has long feuded with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party. That could affect the balance of power within Palestinian politics, and make it more difficult for Palestinian leaders to negotiate with full authority.

When Islamist gunman stormed into supermarket, Lassana Bathily let customers into store's basement freezer, told them to stay in while he sneaked out to aid police.

At a kosher supermarket in Paris, a quick-thinking Muslim employee hides several Jewish shoppers in the basement before sneaking out to brief police on the hostage-taker upstairs. In the town of Dammartin-en-Goele, a poker-faced businessman fools a pair of gunmen into believing they're alone in the building before being allowed to leave unharmed.

In the days after the bloody end of twin French hostage crises Friday, stories of life-saving courage are beginning to filter out. One of the most striking is the story of Lassana Bathily, a young immigrant from Mali who literally provided police with the key to ending the hostage crisis at the supermarket.

Lassana Bathily

Bathily was in the store's underground stockroom when gunman Amedy Coulibaly burst in upstairs, according to accounts given to French media and to a friend of Bathily's who spoke to The Associated Press. Bathily turned off the stockroom's freezer and hid a group of frightened shoppers inside before sneaking out through a fire escape to speak to police. Initially confused for the attacker, he was forced to the ground and handcuffed.

Once police realized their mistake, he provided them with the key they needed to open the supermarket's metal blinds and mount their assault.

"The guy was so courageous," said Mohammed Amine, a 33-year-old friend and former coworker of Bathily's who spoke to him about the assault on Saturday.

Witnesses and authorities have corroborated Bathily's account.

A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk on the record, explained that the key Bathily gave police allowed them to storm the supermarket without having to punch their way through the shutters.

About 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the northeast, another hostage's cool head helped keep a bad day from getting worse. Businessman Michel Catalano was waiting on a supplier at his office in Dammartin-en-Goele when he saw brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi approaching with Kalashnikov rifles. As his colleague, a 26-year-old he identified only as Lilian, ran to hide, he distracted the gunmen. He offered them coffee and — after a brief exchange of fire with authorities outside — bandaged one of the brother's necks.

"I stayed an hour with them," Catalano told AP. "I was never scared, because I had only one idea in my head: 'They should not go to the end (of the hallway) to see Lilian, that's all.' That's what kept me calm."

Eventually, Catalano was released by the hostages as police swapped text messages with Lilian inside. Just before dusk, the brothers ran outside, guns blazing. They died in a hail of return fire.

Back at the kosher supermarket, police used Bathily's key to mount their assault, killing Coulibaly and freeing 15 hostages.

Amid the bravery, there was also tragedy.

Police found four hostages dead inside the supermarket, apparently shot by Coulibaly when he entered the store.

Among them was Yohan Cohen, a 22-year-old who Amine said was "someone amazing, friendly, who likes (and) who respects people."

"I'm Muslim and he's Jewish," said Amine, an immigrant from Morocco.

"But there's such respect between us. We're like brothers.

"They took my best friend."

Bathily's actions did not go unnoticed on social media.

Appreciation for Bathily followed social media accolades for another Muslim involved in the attacks – police officer Ahmed Merabet, 40, killed during the attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine's offices, that killed another 11 people.

A hashtag honoring Merabet, #JeSuisAhmed, gained popularity on social media as more people expressed solidarity with the Muslim police officer who was gunned down outside the satirical magazine's office. Others used the hashtag not just to honor Merabet, but also to defend Islam.

What Palestine will be able to do, assuming it clears the legal hurdles described above, is refer particular “situations” to the ICC prosecutor, and request that they be investigated. Palestine has submitted a declaration granting the court retroactive jurisdiction to June 13, 2014, which includes the Gaza invasion that summer. So any crimes that took place within that period, including those in the Gaza war, could potentially be referred to the court as part of a situation for investigation.

That’s because of a rule called “complementarity,” which strips the court of jurisdiction over crimes that have already been investigated and prosecuted in good faith by a national court.

Israel has a strong judiciary that actively prosecutes war-crimes cases involving its soldiers (even if the courts’ decisions are often criticized as too lenient). So to exercise jurisdiction over those offenses, the ICC would have to demonstrate that the Israeli courts had acted in bad faith, which is a high hurdle to clear – it requires more than just an acquittal.

However, the issue of building settlements in the occupied territories has not been taken up by Israeli courts, so that could be a more likely target for an ICC prosecution, as discussed further below.

woensdag 14 januari 2015

Your Excellency, many Palestinians nearly fell off their chairs upon seeing their president march at the front row of a rally in your capital to protest against terrorism and assaults on freedom of the media.

Undoubtedly, you are unaware of the fact that President Abbas is personally responsible for punishing Palestinian journalists who dare to criticize him or express their views in public. Every day we see that the Western media, including French newspapers and magazines, does not care about such violations unless they are committed by Israel.

Your Excellency, you are completely mistaken if you believe that Abbas and his Palestinian Authority are tolerant toward satire or any form of criticism. While he was attending the rally, a human rights group published a report accusing the Palestinian Authority of "waging war" against university students in the West Bank.

First, I wish to express my deep condolences over the killing of innocent citizens in the recent terror attacks in Paris.

Second, I want to apologize to Your Excellency for not revealing my true identity. After you read my letter, you will realize why people like me are afraid to reveal their real identity.

I decided to write to you this letter after hearing my president, Mahmoud Abbas,declarethat you had invited him to attend the anti-terror rally in Paris earlier this week.

Like many Palestinians, I see President Abbas's participation in a rally against terrorism and assaults on freedom of speech as an act of hypocrisy -- a condition that is not alien to Palestinian Authority leaders.

In fact, many Palestinians nearly fell off their chairs upon seeing their president march in the front row of a rally in your capital, in protest against terrorism and assaults on freedom of the media.

President Abbas's participation in the rally is an insult to the victims of the terror attacks. It is also an insult to Western values, including freedom of expression and democracy.

Your Excellency, myself and other journalists living under the rule of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank were the first to be offended by the invitation you extended to President Abbas to attend the anti-terror rally.

Undoubtedly, you are unaware of the fact that Abbas is personally responsible for punishing Palestinian journalists who dare to criticize him or express their views in public. Of course, Your Excellency, we cannot blame you for being unaware of this assault on public freedoms because the mainstream media, including French newspapers and magazines, deliberately turn a blind eye to these practices. Every day we see that the Western media does not care about such violations unless they are committed by Israel.

That is why, Your Excellency, you are probably unaware of the cases of several Palestinian journalists who have been arrested and intimidated by President Abbas's security forces over the past few years. Yes, this is the same Abbas who came to Paris to express his condolences over the brutal killing of the Charlie Hebdo journalists.

The most recent example of Abbas's crackdown on Palestinian journalists occurred shortly before Your Excellency phoned President Abbas to invite him to Paris. The case involves my female colleague,Majdolin Hassouneh, who was detained for "extending her tongue," or insulting, President Abbas.

Your Excellency, please allow me to tell you that you are completely mistaken if you ever thought that President Abbas and his Palestinian Authority are tolerant toward satire or any form of criticism. And of course, you haven't heard of the Palestinian Authority's decision tocancel the only popular satirical showon Palestine TV, Watan ala Watar (Country on a String).

The show was forced off the air in 2011 because President Abbas believed it had "crossed a line" by mocking his top officials in Ramallah. This is the same Abbas who came to Paris to protest the massacre at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

And, Your Excellency, if you want further evidence of President Abbas's clampdown on political satire, you can ask Palestinian comedians Abdel Rahman Daher and Mahmoud Rizek. The two men are currently in Jordan because they are afraid to return to the West Bank. No, Your Excellency, they are not afraid to return home because of Israel. They are afraid of beingarrestedby President Abbas's security forces, which accuse the two men of insulting their leader.

President Abbas, Your Excellency, should be the last person to walk in a march honoring journalists who were massacred because of their satirical work. His participation in the Paris rally is not only in an insult to the memory of the slain journalists, but to all those who believe in freedom of expression and media.

I also want to bring to the attention of Your Excellency that while President Mahmoud Abbas was attending the rally in Paris, a human rights group published areportaccusing the Palestinian Authority of "waging war" against university students in the West Bank. According to the report, 24 students have been arrested in recent weeks by Abbas's security forces for "political reasons."

Again, I'm sure Your Excellency did not hear about the crackdown on university campuses because Western media outlets and foreign journalists based here do not report about such stories. You read and hear about such incidents only when the Israeli army or police are involved.

I do not want to take much of your time, Your Excellency, by telling you about President Abbas's double standards and hypocrisy on the subject of terrorism. You can learn a lot about this by going on the Internet and seeing, with your own eyes, how our president often condones and glorifies terrorism and terrorists.

You will even discover that our president, who will soon celebrate his 80thbirthday, is prepared to stay awake all night towelcome Palestinians released from Israeli prisonfor murdering Jews and committing terror attacks no less serious than the ones your country experienced last week.

You will also discover, Your Excellency, that our president alsorewards terroristsby granting them monthly salaries and other privileges.

What would be your reaction, Your Excellency, if someone decided to reward financially the families of the terrorists who massacred the innocent civilians in Paris?

Your Excellency, perhaps it is now too late to talk about the decision to invite President Abbas to the anti-terror rally. The damage has already been done, as far as I and many Palestinians are concerned. The way we see it is as follows: President Abbas has once again managed to deceive you and the rest of the international community by placing himself on the side of the good guys in their fight against terrorism and extremism. Even worse, President Abbas has managed to create the false impression that he cares about freedom of speech and independent journalism.

Undoubtedly, now Palestinians like me will now pay a heavier price because President Abbas has been emboldened by his participation in the Paris rally. President Abbas will now step up his assaults on public freedoms because he knows that the international community will only see photos of him marching together with Your Excellency and other world leaders in defense of freedom of expression.

By extending the invitation to President Abbas, you have caused damage to Palestinians like me who have been hoping that someone -- maybe even a leader like you -- would finally expose the dictatorship of the Palestinian Authority for what it is. President Abbas's participation in the Paris rally is a severe blow to people like me who are genuinely opposed to terrorism and suppression of free speech.

Your Excellency, now that the damage has already been done, all that is left for people like me is to beg you to take all what I have said into account in your future dealings with President Abbas. Please do not hesitate to raise these issues with President Abbas the next time he requests your support for the creation of an independent Palestinian state. Otherwise, France will be helping to establish another corrupt and repressive Arab dictatorship -- one that glorifies and rewards terrorists no different from those who carried out the Paris attacks.

Finally, Your Excellency, I hope that by now you understand the reason why I am too scared to reveal my identity.

Sincerely,

A Palestinian Journalist with No Name or Voice

World leaders link arms at the Paris anti-terror rally on January 11, 2014. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas stands at the far right of the front row. (Image source: RT video screenshot)